Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-03-03
THE GOVERNMENT CLERK.

IN the Departments at WashingtOn-Aged
and Helpless Employees.
An old man committed suicide here the
other day because after twenty years. SER
vice under the government he saw moth
ing for his old age but the poor-house
writes Washington correspondent of
The Philadelphia Record. This little in
cident thas drawn the attention of the
thoughtful (there are thoughtful people
in Washington, though you might not
think it) anew to problem which must
be solved before a stable civil service,
with all the improvements in administra-
ton which that would make possible, can
be established. The just reason why the
puol1c service here in Washington does
not get better men and better work out of
the men it has got is that it does not offer
q career to those who enter it. Almost all
the young men and all the younger
women In the departments are simply
waiting for something to turn up-some-
thing better, of course, than that which
they We got. Some of them are trying to
make straight paths for themselves out
OF the government service into the world
OF affairs. These are the more capable,
or, az least, the more ambitious few. The
many are just dreaming along from day
to day waiting for fairy gifts, and mean
while wasting their time in framing the
wishes which they will make when the far
les arrive The man who looks,upon the po-
sltlon he holds IN the public service as the
opening of career is SO rare that have
never met him. Consequently, as gen
'eral rule, the government clerk does his
work perfunctorily, spends his salary
heedlessly, and let's the future take care
OF Itself In sublime and vet aud eciOus
confidence that it will. When he Giscov-
ers himself growing old ia the
service his illusions begin to van
lsh, and he soon finds himself
looking forward to the future with a
dread and distrust which are the very
opposltes of reckless confidence which he
had made the fabric OF SO many dreams
strange as 1T may seem, there are many
Old men IN the executive departments,
most of whom have grown cid in the
| government service. [ heard the other
day of the appointment to clerkship of
man who had passed the three-score
and ten milestone, but such e case does
not occur often. The gray heads in the
different bureaus Of the government came
into them as general rule before the
war as brown or as black as yours. Most
OF these old men are unfit for further
| ouSy. Yet they are continued on the rolls
reporting for duty every day that they
are able and performing suc& portion of
their tasks as their feeble hands can
grasp. And when a promotion is to be
made from one grade to another the
Oldest man in the lower grade is the man
who is most likely to get the position.
There is really not another way except to
dismiss the poor old fellow outright but
that thp 81, ae5@ i
They can not steel themselves to the pain
full duty of cutting off the only means by
which these men can live. Bat, neverthe-
less these men are SO much dead wood
stumbling blocks in the way of better
men. They ought to be swept out of
sight. They neither work themselves nor
give others chance to work. President
Arthur saw plainly what SO many other
public men fail to see, that you can not
secure a permanent business-like civil
service by sIni ply guarding the entrance
to Ii. You most guarantee the possibility
OF career IN 1t with due provision for the
Old age which must essentially close every
career. He saw that q stable civil service
demands civil-pension list. Not that he
advocated clvil-penaion list. IL will be
loug wh1ie-a week after never, trust
= before any American statesman
advocates that But he saw that
government clerks, like other men and
women, must feel reasonably sure of the
| future In order to work satisfactorily and
eontentedly in the present. They must,
Ia other words, feel assured that after
serving the government for twenty or
thirty or forty years they will not be
turned out to starve on the scanty savings
OF thelr scanty salaries. Mr.. James G.
thompson, an old Philadelphia has
thought out plan which seems to me to
afford better remedy for the difficulty I
have indicated than any other I have
heard Of His idea is to establish by au-
thorlty of congress and under the super
vision of the heads of departments,
clvH-serVIce insurance and pension asso-
clatlon, made up of all the officekoIders
In any government Office in the United
otates who choose to belong to it. He
would have them agree that 1 per cent, of
their respective salaries should be deduct
ed at the first of every month by the dis
ourslng officers paying them, the amounts
so realized to be turned into permanent
tuna TO be kept by the treasurer Of the
united States. In the first instance the
United States might advance sum suf-
hdlent to meet all demands until the fund
by conatant increment should be equal to
them. He would have man who had
served the government in the civil, service
faithfully for a long term of years-say
twenty-five Or thirty-eligible to retire
ment at his own request, or at the dirrec-
ton of his superior officer, on an allow
ance from the government co uivalent to
half-pay. He would also provide that
after making certain number of pay
ments into the fund clerk would be en-
titled to an allowance during sickness,
and his family to an amount equal to one
years pay on his death. 1t would be
purely voluntary scheme, you see and
would not cost the government cent ex-
cept for the administrative expenses,
which would be very small. Insurance
experts who have examined it pronounce
1t entirely feasible in all its parts. All
that IS needed to establish it is that some
rising young statesman who has the pub
lie attention sufficiently to be heard, yet
not enough to be smothered, should take
hold of it in earnest It would make him
reputation.
mo man can look dignifed in wom-
ans eyes while takining care of q BABY"